If you are serious blogging, if you intend to use a blog in any commercial way and/or to create a professional reputation, then whether or not you decide to have a free hosted blog at wordpress.com or hire a web host and self host a wordpress.org blog, I recommend purchasing a domain as early as possible.
photo credit
This is because blogs on subdomains like wordpress.com or blogspot lack the credibility that those on their own domains have, and a domain name tends to give your website an aura of respectability.
Your domain name should be your website name. For SEO include keywords in the URL and tagline that reflect your “brand” Your domain name is your own, it’s portable, and you can have an email address and blog on the same domain.
Having your own domain means provides increased opportunities to:
build your own unique brand, online presence, and reputation;
assist your followers (readers, clients and customers) to recall and locate your site very easily;
to achieve better search engine ranking.
I have chosen to purchase two domains and domain mapping from wordpress.com One of my blogs is a self hosted wordpress.org blog and one is being hosted by wordpress.com.
As many folks are confused about what the differences are between wordpress.COM and wordpress.ORG I just linked to the best breakdown of all, and below is a video comparison.
Recommended reading:
How to Register Your Own Domain Name
So, You Want Your Own Domain, Huh?
Related posts found in this blog:
How and why to get your own domain
Self hosting: What’s your hurry?
dreamsburnred
January 9, 2010
The video you attached very helpful :). Could be valuable on the forums.
I have my main blog on wordpress.org because well wordpress.org hates video/html so I like to customize.
For my software/gaming/fan blog(s) I use wordpress.com since they are lower priority and I don’t need to be flashy.
dreamsburnred
January 9, 2010
“I have my main blog on wordpress.org because well wordpress.org hates video/html so I like to customize.” Meant to say wordpres.com hates it.
timethief
January 9, 2010
Hello there. I actually read right over that on the first go and mentally changed it to wordpress.com as I did so.
I’m currently domain mapping this blog and that means the PageRank (4) that it had prior to the domain change has disappeared. So it’s going to take about 4 – 6 months to regain it.
That’s one of the reasons I think that anyone who is serious about blogging ought to purchase a domain right from the get go.
Thanks for your comment. :)
PearlTrader
January 9, 2010
Ti Ti, I congratulate you on moving your blog to your self hosting service. I already very much appreciate your wonderful blogging tips blog. I came to know about your .Com blog from your comments at blog.Melindaville.com.
Wish All The Best!
Ibn Hanif
timethief
January 9, 2010
@PearlTrader
But of course I know you and I’m delighted you came to visit. Thanks so much for the congrats on the domain. I hope you are well and happy and that 2010 will prove to be a rewarding year for you. :)
Keith
January 9, 2010
I started on wordpress.com and I found how easy it is to get high PR because of the wordpress subdomain, it is a little harder on a self hosted site, but is certainly not impossible.
If you are going to be serious about blogging, self hosting is the way to go.
Thanks for the comment over on my site and I look forward to reading more here…
timethief
January 9, 2010
Hello Keith,
I found your blog because I’m a subscriber to Kristi’s kikolani and your post was in her Fetching Friday round up. I enjoyed reading your post and will return to read more soon, time permitting. :)
This is the second domain I have purchased for a blog on wordpress.com so I’ve been through the process. I found that my other blog did recover PageRank in a few months but has never garnered anywhere near the traffic that it had when it was hosted by wordpress.com. Once you leave wordpress.com your posts not longer appear in the global tagging system system, and my blog received a great flow of targeted readers from those global tagging pages.
Michael Stagg @ Dharmapreneur™
January 12, 2010
An informative post as always! I do both – self host my main blog (http://www.MyIISense.com) and use WordPress.com for this blog (Dharmapreneur). By far, the better experience is with the self hosted blog. The customization options are better as are the themes when you self host.
I’m still learning the ropes of WP.org. I will be switching most, if not ALL, of my blogs to that platform in the near future. Again, great post TT; I’m a fan for life! :o)
webmistress
March 2, 2010
We got our domain already and purchased it here on WP, but did’nt do the mapping at the same time, we currently would like to know our options as far as moving our domain name, unlockin, mapping and so on?
This is not at all is not for the novice thats for sure, there should be a section on wp that is newbie friendly, how about it TT will you be adding post in the future for the not-so-tech-savvy?
timethief
March 2, 2010
@webmistress
Don’t wait go directly to Staff and ask for help.
Bob
March 8, 2010
I’m interested in your comments that “posts no longer appear in the global tagging system” when you leave wordpress.com, and your “blog received a great flow of targeted readers from those global tagging pages.”
Any suggestions where I can find additional info on global tagging that’s suitable for a novice? It sounds like wordpress.com and global tagging pages offers an advantage in increased traffic that can be difficult to duplicate on a site not hosted by wordpress. Thanks for the abundance of informative posts.
timethief
March 9, 2010
This is what the support documentation has http://en.support.wordpress.com/global-tags/
This is a link to my post.
askthecouncil
March 9, 2010
Thanks for the support link about global tags and your easy to understand explanation of tags and categories.
Your comment about the blog traffic that’s generated by being part of wordpress.com’s global tagging system is the only mention I’ve come across in my reading on wordpress.com vs wordpress.org. It seems like an important point in the .com vs .org debate if traffic is a high priority.
I just read your Self-Hosting: What’s Your Hurry? post and I’m currently leaning in the direction of a wordpress.com site with my own domain name. I’m attracted to the bells and whistles (themes, plug-ins, other customization) that .org self-hosting offers, but I agree with you about the importance of developing good basic blogging skills and it’s easy to imagine that self-hosting will divert time and attention from a focus on the fundamentals.
I’d like to learn more about what happens to a wordpress.com site with with a mysite.com url when the switch is made to a self-hosted wordpress.org site. Is there an easy export/import of the .com’s archived contents into the new .org site?
I hope you sleep peacefully and have beautiful dreams inspired by the heartfelt help I imagine many have received from your words.
timethief
March 9, 2010
@askthecouncil
The easiest part of making the move is the last step which is the export of your content out of your wordpress.com blog and the import into your wordpress.org blog.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#toc
http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/import-export-links/
prashish
July 7, 2010
Hello,
I have been reading your blog posts a lot these days. They have been very very helpful and most of them worked like a charm for me. I have a question and I needed some professional’s advice. You would be the best person of my query.
I have been running a wordpress.com blog for about seven months now and I simply love it. But the thing I hate about wordpress.com hosted blogs is that I cannot use a custom theme and make use of many many other plugins which can make my blog look as I desire. I even got a .com.np (its free here) but I fear shifting to it. I have noticed that search engines are very fast to grab post of wordpress hosted blogs but not for self hosted wordpress blogs. I got a free space from 0fees.net and I have linked it to my new domain. I even tested out a sample theme in my new blog but google doesnt seem to find it. I feel very secure with .wordpress.com as search engine spiders bot easily detect them and my posts are easily in the first page. I doubt it would happen the same with my new “free space” self hosted blog. Also I’m a learning webdesigner and can code websites, I want to personalize my blog, which I cannot do with my wordpress.com blog. Can you please suggest me what to do.
Waiting for your reply.
prashish
timethief
July 7, 2010
hello there. Thanks for letting me know you find value in my blog. I’m not a professional blogger and I don’t provide the service of visiting and analyzing my reader’s blogs. You have said:
“I have noticed that search engines are very fast to grab post of wordpress hosted blogs but not for self hosted wordpress blogs. ”
Yes, I have noted this as well. Moreover, the wordpress.com site has such excellent SEO and pageranking that this is not surprising. IMHO it’s the best free web host one can get.
It’s also my opinion that bloggers who rush off to get self hosted wordpress.ORG domains merely to have plugins and different themes are missing the fact that readers come to blogs to read the content in blog posts. if you blog for your readers then I advise you don;t get caught up into leaving wordpress.com for bells and whistles that reader’s could care less about.
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/01/13/self-hosting-whats-your-hurry/
There are now 100 themes we can choose from at wordpress.com and all are customizable to some degree or another. The newest themes are highly customizable and feature rich. In addition there are now custom menus and custom menu widgets that we can use.
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/06/17/custom-menus-arrive-at-wordpress-com/
Also note that WordPress.com has been running on version 3.0 since the end of May. Yes that date prefates the release of 3.0 through wordpress.ORG. Here Staff are continually deploying version updates and new features. Also many features we have are exclusive to wordpress.com and those that aren’t are released to wordpress.ORG bloggers after they have been released at wordpress.COM. So the presumption that wordpress.org bloggers are ahead of us is absolutely ridiculous but the myth still persists.
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/19/optimize-for-perfection-optimize-for-speed/
Aside from the contents of my blog, this is as much help as I can give you. Going beyond this would require a consultation fee and me making you a client and I’m not open to that.
Best wishes with your blog. :)